How Tickford have been rejuvenated
Tickford Racing staff will return to a rejuvenated Campbellfield premises after the Ford squad used the COVID-19 break to spruce up their workshop.
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The majority of Tickford’s staff have either been on leave or working from home, bar a skeleton crew predominantly responsible for facility maintenance.
But as Tickford boss Tim Edwards told Supercars SideTracked, they have had a long-awaited project operating in the background.
“We decided earlier this year that it was time that we gave the place a bit of a birthday,” Edwards said.
“I’m fortunate that one of my truck drivers is a builder so he took the lead with his merry men of apprentices around him and they have absolutely rejuvenated the place; painted floors, built new walls, it’s been great.
“The plan at the moment is we’re working towards the first race so by June we will largely be having most people back at work.
“It will be great for them to come in and have a whole new working environment, something that they can be proud of, to hopefully put a smile on their face after a difficult couple of months.”
Edwards also provided details of the process that saw 23Red Racing and Will Davison drop out and the Boost Mobile/James Courtney combination come into the Tickford fold.
“It was probably about a month ago that initially Phil [Munday, 23Red Racing owner] sort of enlightened us that Milwaukee might be pulling the pin,” Edwards said.
“Initially my thoughts were around well that’s it, we’ll just be dropping it to a three-car team, not thinking that there would be a viable alternative in the making.
“So I was quietly making plans to restructure the business around a three-car model, which is not ideal for us.
“[We] had some initial discussions with Boost about two weeks ago and within seven or eight days we pretty much were signing contracts so it was extremely quick the way it all came together.
“But it was one of those things, it was almost meant to be.
“They were just looking at doing some wildcards, so they would have done some sporadic racing, so for both parties it really worked well.
“And to be fair also for Phil Munday, it sort of allows him to make an orderly exit over the balance of this year, he can negotiate to sell his REC [Racing Entitlements Contract] by the end of this championship year and so for all three parties it just made perfect sense that we should be doing this.
“There’s a car sitting there that literally has a crew that have already demonstrated their capabilities last year and what you saw of them at the start of this season.
“So change some stickers on the car and away we go.”
Edwards noted he expects to be working from home even when the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship resumes at Sydney Motorsport Park on June 27-28, with only critical staff to travel.
